Impact pathways: on the role and function of supply chain and operations management executives (SCOMEs)

Purpose To investigate the rise of Supply Chain and Operations Executives in the strategic leadership of firms, we aim to outline a research agenda that enables improved scholarly theorization and managerial understanding of this emerging phenomenon. We expect the outline to help enhance our understanding of these positions and ultimately improve our ability to train individuals to fill them and to inform policymakers about corporate governance in the supply chain domain. Design/methodology/approach We study these executives through a set of 29 interviews and unravel what they do, and why and how they do it, to properly explicate the impact of their role and function on firms and their supply chains. Findings Pathways to impact were outlined along these three dimensions to inform future research into the work activities that these executives perform, the mandates they receive from relevant stakeholders and the interpretative sensemaking that they need to engage in. Originality/value There is a dearth of literature on the actual role and functions of supply chain and operations management executives (SCOMEs). Existing studies are focused on performance impacts of employing SCOMEs, and our study is the first to offer direct empirical evidence of what they are actually doing for contemporary organizations.